In digital video broadcasting (DVB), transport streams are used to deliver program data between a transmitter device and a receiver device. The transmission is typically communicated over networks. Program data has video and audio components, as well as ancillary information such as subtitles, teletext, and others.
The transmitter device receives as input the video, audio, and ancillary data components of one or more programs. The transmitter device compresses the data, divides the data into packets, and generates a single transport stream. A periodic Program Clock Reference (PCR) may be included in the generated transport stream. The PCR is used by the receiver device to present the audio and the video signals at the intended program rate. The transport stream is transmitted by the transmitter device to a network.
The receiver device obtains the transport stream from the network. The receiver device decodes the transport stream. The video, audio, and PCR components are parsed to reconstruct the transmitted program(s).